Is Au Bon Pain Blocking Prochoice Websites on its Wi-Fi?

Last night, I was alerted to the fact that Au Bon Pain’s public wi-fi is blocking prochoice, progressive websites — including sherights, NARAL, and GLAAD, among others — but NOT anti-choice sites like the Family Research Council. What’s worse, they’ve incorrectly classified sherights as “pornography.” Huh?

At first I (optimistically) figured it was an isolated franchise issue (the initial report came from Massachusetts), but word has it the ABP in D.C.’s Union Station is doing the same thing.

In addition to the above-mentioned sites, it apparently also blocked access to all web sites discussing the Rape Audits Bill, H.R. 7, which was scheduled for debate in Congress last Thursday.

TAKE ACTION: Be a social science researcher for a day. If you live or work near an Au Bon Pain, please hop in and try to access sites like ours, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, GLAAD, NOW, etc., on their wi-fi. If they are blocked, grab a screen shot and email it to editor@sherights.com. And please spread the word.

8 replies

This is absolutely not their fault or intention, it is the “Symantec Norton ConnectSafe” service being utilized to prevent malware/phishing/adult content that is blocking and chooses the content to filter. Only recently has this become more visible because they have changed their higher blocking policy to include “Sexual Orientation” as a blocked category. Not sure why they decided to make these changes, and it affects both sides of the fence. We @ Wifient will be removing that service and reviewing other options.